Today in Matsuzaka land

More reports (these coming from Peter Gammons) that the Sox won the bidding for the right to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka; the latest reports tab that bid at $42 million. At this point, there’s not a lot to say until the official announcement is made at 8 pm tonight…and after that point, there won’t be much to say until the Sox (or whichever team managed to outbid Boston and fly completely under the radar) sign/fail to sign Matsuzaka to a deal.

In other Matsuzaka-related news, Murray Chass tries to outdo his recent boneheadedness with today’s column, in which he demonstrates that:

* He sucks at math: Chass says the Red Sox bid is in the “$45 million range” and that that figure (according to an “official”), “would be perhaps 50 percent higher than the other bids. … [which] were either slightly above or slightly below $30 million.” Regardless of what an anonymous official says, 30 is not half of 45.^
^ Dammit all, it turns out that I’m the one who sucks at math: as three posters pointed out in short order, 45 is actually 50 percent higher than 30…even if 45 is not twice as much as 30, which is what I ended up saying. Alas. I’ll leave this up here so as not to whitewash my sins…

* He’s still pissed that George Steinbrenner won’t talk to him, although this anger is now couched as condescending pity: the Boss’s refusal to get on the blower with our man Murray is “sad.” “In the past, Steinbrenner would not have passed up an opportunity to comment caustically on what the Red Sox bid, especially with the evil empire label still in his mind. Those who have heard many of his comments can only shake our heads in sorrow and accept that an era has passed.”

* His irrational hatred of the Red Sox continues unabated: Chass asks — apparently in all seriousness — if the Sox’s bid for Matsuzaka is “evil” and decides it’s “[m]ind boggling perhaps, but not evil. Stunning perhaps, but not evil. Incredulous maybe, but not evil. Obscene, as an executive of another club said, but not evil.”

* Related to this, the inconsistency of his internal logic is as skewed as ever: After spanking Steinbrenner for not dishing out some incendiary quotes, prompted by Chass’s regurgitating of Larry Lucchino’s “evil empire” comments vis a vis the Jose Contreras signing, Chass takes those same comments at face value and tries to throw them back in Boston’s face.

* And finally, Chass’s understanding of baseball is as shakey as ever: the Contreras signing was a pure-payroll play; Lucchino’s evil empire comment was explicitly referring to New York’s seeming endless capacity to add payroll, luxury tax and repercussions be damned. The Matsuzaka posting bid, as many, many people have pointed out, is both a one-time cost and is unrelated to the luxury tax or total payroll.

Seth, I’m no Murray Chass fan, but I think you owe Murray an apology if he said that the Sox’ $45 million bid is 50 % higher than the other bids. To wit, 50% of $30 million is $15 million and $30 m plus $15 m equals $45 million. Sorry dude.

the 50% figure is in reference to $30M. meaning if the Sox bid $45M and the next highest bidders were at $30M, then they were 50% higher ($15M) than their competition. at least that’s how i understood it.

And please, the fact that the $45M (or whatever it ends up being) isn’t reflected in payroll isn’t the point of the evil empire mention. lucchino was expressing frustration that the Yanks’ boundless spending let them reach (tentacles) all over the globe to buy the best players, which is exactly what the Sox are doing now. whether or not the $45M counts against the payroll is irrelevant. You honestly think lucchino’s comment would have been different if the Contreras situation was a one-time posting bid?

$51.1 mil? In Seth’s math, that’s like 48% more than Gammons had reported! In all seriousness, I’m more than a little apprehensive about this, if Seth’s pitch count reports are accurate. Kerry Wood’s arm is Kerry Wood’s arm even if he is Japanese. Didn’t we just let a foreign weak-armed phenom go?

Is it just me or is there no possible way the sox are planning to sign him? Unless they get an amazing 7 year deal to kind of amortize out the $51.1 M, they’re going to overpay by a huge margin for this guy, and long term deals (>3 years) are (with few exceptions) never inked by this front office.

It seems like they will try to trade the rights or just offer matsuzaka a ridiculously low contract to prevent him from going to the yankees for another year… (although the mets would have won the bidding)